Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Well, first there is the question of the terms under which you moved in to the new house. Since you speak of a landlord, I assume you are or were a tenant......but were you on a month-to-month arrangement, or did you have a one-year lease, or a lease for some other definite term?

Ordinarly, when a rented-out property changes owners, the new owner takes "subject to" all the existing leases and rental agreements. That way, for example, when Syndicate X buys a 70-story office tower in midtown Manhattan from Syndicate Y, the hundreds of tenants in the building don't get evicted and don't have to negotiate new leases. They may not even know that the building has changed hands.

It's the same way with single-family houses. When Landlord A sells to Landlord B, there is no impact on the tenant. The new landlord has no greater right to evict the tenant than the old landlord had. There is one exception to this general rule: if the lease specifically says that "this lease terminates (or may be terminated) on the sale of the building" then that will, or can, happen. Such termination-on-sale clauses are unusual, perhaps even rare.

So, whether the new landlord can terminate your rental depends on the agreement you made with the old landlord, and perhaps upon whether you are in breach. You can be terminated for cause, or if the agreement was month-to-month, upon 30 days notice. If you are on a long-term lease, you can't be terminated except for cause, usually because you have breached the lease, but the law also allows early termination for certain kinds of criminal activity (e.g., drug dealing) even if the lease doesn't forbid it.

If you have an enforceable written lease or rental agreement, it must be honored and the new owner would have to follow its rules to get you out. Read it. Without a lease, he can evict you the same as any other landlord, by following the rules.